Tag Archives: Easter

This Easter Miss K is 4. Already she is telling me that the Easter bunny will be coming with chocolate eggs – which is not something she has picked up from home… so today we took full advantage of our local churches and descended into the full on Mess of Messy Church.

Good Friday morning we went to Highfield church, which was quite literally full of children. A room filled with about 10 tables of activities to choose from. My hardest job was trying to keep an eye on the toddler boy who was running around as if he had never seen a huge room before… and trying to help Miss K do various crafts. We made an Easter card using Hama beads, we decorated a stone, we played with clay (Miss K made a caterpillar!), made a palm leaf and used biscuits to make a tomb. All very creative and Easter like, giving us a good talking point later on at home.

The church service was well thought out for mums of small ones as it was full of stations to move around and journey through the Easter story, this gave us time to reflect as parents and time for me to explain a little of what was going on. Finally a lunch of pasta, tomato sauce, cheese and ham. Minus the veggies sadly, but mine had veggies as a snack later that day to make up for it 😉 This led to a messy J-boy. A wonderful event that I would certainly not have been able to recreate at home.

Then later in the day we went to Citylife Church, a place where we frequent for playgroup and other groups. This meant I could let the boy off to run around a little more. In fact by the time I had taken off my coat he was sat at a table looking at decorating a cake! I distracted him with paint. Here we decorated Easter cakes, made daffodil Easter cards, made an Easter garden and my favourite – used shaving foam and paint to decorate a paper Easter egg.

This truly was “Messy” church. The service part was very suitable for my small ones and led to Miss K really grasping the Easter story through a video. My boy sat on my lap on the floor and simple pointed to the screen asking for “More”. Bless him.

Coming home tonight in the car Miss K tells me “Mummy it must have hurt Jesus’ hands to be nailed to a cross”. At 4 years old this girl speaks volumes.

Easter in our house does involve Chocolate but it’s more about remembering the man who gave his all for us.

Easter. It’s full of chocolate, new life and for us celebrating the resurrection of Jesus. What has made this year extra special has been time with family. We currently have 3 children aged 1,2 and 3 on one side of the family, so you can imagine the fun when we all get together.

Our Easter this year has not been chocolate free but I have suddenly realised that at 3.30pm on Easter Sunday I have not actually had any chocolate. To some that may seem like a travesity, to me it shows how it’s not all about the chocolate.

The children all were given an Easter egg and ate a small amount of it on Easter Saturday – my 2 year old loves “Choc Choc” and was very excited at the idea of a Chocolate Egg…. but in the moment there was far more excitement to be had in playing with cousins. Precisely how it should be, celebrating this special event with family and chocolate being second best.

Dietitian UK: Cousins chill together.

We had some Easter themed activities activities: making Easter bunny masks, colouring in Easter egg pictures and hopping like bunnies. What more could you want?

Dietitian UK: My Easter Bunny

I hope your Easter has been one of reflection, peace, gratitude and good times with family 🙂

I’m certainly not an experienced baker at all….yet I love giving things a go. Plus when you are wheat intolerant it can be cheaper to make things yourself rather than buy them. So in the back of my mind I had planned to try making some hot cross buns in the run up to Easter. Typically life ran away with itself, time fly by and on Easter Sunday there were still no hot cross buns.

However on Easter Monday I was tweeted a recipe to try….it being a rainy Bank Holiday I decided to take the plunge. These aren’t something to bake in a hurry but if you are around the house and have time to let them rise then give them a go! I had to adapt the recipe which I admit did make me quite nervous, however I was delighted with the results and a teeny bit proud of myself 😉

The final result, Hot Cross Buns.

The Recipe:

200g Rice flour

100g cornmeal

100g rye flour

50g tapioca starch

50g potato flour

(Alternatively 500g of a good GF flour mix)

1 tsp xanthum gum

2 tsp yeast

300ml warm milk

75g caster sugar

50g marg

1 egg

Mix all the above together to make a dough, but don’t knead it. Then place into an oiled bowl, cover with cling film and leave to rise in a warm place. This took about 1 1/2 hours for mine. It should almost double in size and it feels risen to the touch, springy and doughy.

Whilst it rises have a sit down, a cuppa, sweep the kitchen, do some catching up on twitter (you get the idea) and also mix together:

1 tsp olive oil

zest 1 orange

100g sultanas

1tsp cinnamon

1 tsp mixed spice

1/2 grated nutmeg

Mix this fruity bunch into the dough and leave it to rise once more. I left mine most of the afternoon. Leaving it longer than needed won’t harm it. Then shape into rounds, about 12, and get ready for the creative bit. Mix a couple of tbsp of gluten free flour with a drizzle of water and mix to a thick paste. Pop into a piping back and pipe on your crosses. Here’s mine before cooking:

Hot Cross Buns ready to bake

Pop in the oven at Gas Mark 7 for 20 minutes. I checked mine and swapped the upper and middle trays over half way through. Leave to cool on a wire rack and enjoy. Yum.